The Azhahad Guard
The Azhahad Guard is the collective name given to the regiments that form the entirety of the city's army. Every soldier who has ever fought for Azhahad has been a member of the Guard in one way or another, it being an organisation well acquainted to the realities of war when it comes to mercenaries. Faced with the inevitable conflict of a city so well placed and a keen awareness for the lack of the fledgling settlement to muster sufficient warm bodies in its defence from its own population, the man who would become known as Grand Duke Simon Apirat ensured that the basic structure of the Guard was built from the ground up for ease of coordination with external units. Evolving as it did from a trading post, the soldiers who had long protected the became the nucleus of an organisation that would in time evolve to be the protectors of one of the richest cities on the planet, and whilst many have come and gone in the annals of the Guard, five families have remained a part of it since time immemorial. It is these families that have forged the Guard into a weapon that stood firm against an empire that spanned a continent. And whilst the martial splendour of that time has passed into the realm of history, its Families remember. The Guard is divided into regimental formations, each with a strength of five three hundred man companies. During peacetime it maintains five such formations on a permanent basis, one each to ensure the security of the districts and two for border control. The units within the city also act as training cadre for the city's sizeable militia. If called to total war, Azhahad can muster ten full professional regiments alongside at least parity of reserve formations before even taking the Militia - answerable in the end to the Guard - or hired mercenary companies into account. Whilst even then, their numbers are tiny by the standards of continental armies, the Azhahad Guard has proved its valour on times beyond counting. And when the Guard's competence and excellent equipment is taken into account and combined with the disproportionate numbers of sorcerers and other Gifted either sworn to defend the city or simply members of the Guard proper, then the fact that Azhahad held when attacked by the Empire of Paragon three hundred years ago until the squabbling nations of the other continent could unite and march to their aid becomes less of a miracle. Where there is power, there has always been corruption, and it is no different in the Guard. But in general, and especially when compared to any other trading city you might care to name, the Guard is almost frightfully honest. Yes, there are rotten apples, some even sprouting worms. But they are few and far between on the whole - and the randomised rotation of units between Azhahad's districts and the Borders do much to aid in the continuation of this fine tradition.